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Tuesday, September 21, 2004

MOVE FROM BIG FIVE TO BIG FOUR MIGHT NOT BE QUITE AS SLICK AS THOUGHT: Let's hope that Sony and BMG haven't ordered the new letterheads for their merged labels just yet - Impala, the European indie trade assocation, is planning a legal challenge to the union. The only trouble is, they need to know why the European Commission allowed the merger to go ahead - and the EC hasn't yet published the details. The EC makes a lame excuse that it's been on holiday (no, they really did) and also suggests that part of the delay is down to one of the parties not yet having sent back its copy of the judgement. Sony and BMG get a chance to mark up the document to ensure that no confidential information accidently slides into the public domain, and, according to the EC, one of the two hasn't sent theirs back yet.

Hmm... so, in order to lodge an objection to the merger, the indies have to get hold of a document. And the two merged companies can keep that document out of the indie label's hands simply by dragging its feet in sending them back to the Commission. But even before they send it back, they're able to proceed with melding their two businesses together, meaning they'll have a pretty strong argument during an appeal that they've already merged and it would be unfair, even impossible, to demerge. Is that entirely fair?